It all began a week earlier as he wandered the depths of unknown space in his trusty stealth bomber Classy Party VII. He was light years away from civilization and cut off from his new corporation, but Yooch didn’t mind. It was Cara that thrived on all that. She loved bossing around fleet members and bragging about her combat record. Yooch didn’t need to be in the spotlight. He would rather shine it on the darkest corners of space to discover what lurked there…
This time it was a Drake. Actually a pair of Drakes. Yooch had discovered them in the process of assaulting a sleeper compound. They weren’t fairing well. A steady barrage of missiles rained down on the two battlecruisers and their shields crackled ominously. Yooch approached slowly under the cover of his cloak, wondering if he should engage. He had taken down a single Drake before, but two might be a challenge.
His deliberation was interrupted when one of the pilots suddenly activated his warp drive and disappeared from sight. The second was quick to follow. Intrigued, Yooch followed their signatures back to the force-field where their ships were stored. One of the pilots had switched in to a Raven, and both were accelerating into warp again. Apparently the Drake wasn’t strong enough to take on the sleeper drones and the pilot was hoping a battleship would fair better.
Yooch followed them back to the compound and began to creep forward again. He wasn’t really sure what to do about the battleship, but maybe he would be able to destroy the Drake before the Raven was able to lock onto his ship’s signature. However, it wasn’t long before they both aligned and activated their warp drives, disappearing once more into the vacuum. How peculiar.
He was sure they would return, and waited at the edge of the compound. Sure enough the Drake reappeared on his directional scan within a few minutes, accompanied by….a Chimera!
A Chimera? For this little compound? This was a blatant breach of the articles of the Yulai Convention concerning “excessive force”. Yooch immediately drafted an urgent memo alerting Rall and Storm to the violation. However, in the time it took for the light-distance broadcast to transmit the Chimera obliterated the compound and returned to safety behind the force-field.
Yooch wasn’t about to let it lie. This Chimera needed to die.
For the next several days he scanned the system every few hours, bookmarking the location of every anomaly his electronics could locate. He reprogrammed his ship’s signature each day to remain inconspicuous. Many unstable wormholes appeared and collapsed, occasionally bringing company with them. Yooch let nothing distract him from the goal, however. He needed to know exactly where the Chimera would appear next, and he needed to have backup ready when the time came.
Between scouting and surveying the system, Yooch contacted several groups to enlist their help. His own corp-mates from End-of-Line promised their assistance should the Chimera reappear. Several of his old Darkstorm colleagues were readily available as well and promised to bring members of their new corps, Anomalous Existence and Empire Wars.
Using discrete wireless queries, Yooch was able to collect quite a bit of information on the Chimera pilot and his cohorts. They were part of the corporation Sons and Daughters of Mandalore, and as the days passed Yooch was able to identify several unique pilots. Watching their actions, he almost felt he knew them personally.
There was:
Gabriel Thanduil – An expert industrialist. He manages colonies on all the planets in the system. Although he doesn’t enjoy combat, he owns a Deimos and isn’t afraid to defend himself.
Misty Shadows – She’s the backbone of corporate intel. Fearlessly scouting the system every day in a Magnate she collects bookmarks and directs corporate operations. A few of her quirks include scanning in a Noctis and attempting to combat probe cloaked ships.
Cassuz Fett – His heart is in the right place, but he has a lot to learn. He follows Misty and Spacemarine in a Drake and imitates their actions carefully.
Spacemarine7212 Estemaire – The financial backer and director of the corporation, he flies the monolithic Chimera. The other corp members follow his direction without question.
On the seventh day, Yooch waited patiently outside the force-field as the Sons and Daughters of Mandalore readied their fleet. There had been many false alarms over the week, but he remained as alert as possible as two of their pilots boarded Tengus. Suddenly, Spacemarine warped into the force-field and boarded the Chimera.
Screaming into the microphone, Yooch broadcasted alerts to each of the reserve fleets. Bert7 responded quickly, bringing a Phobos to a nearby high-secuirty system. Gunner GzR and Anomalous Existence arrived soon after with a small armada. Trying to direct End-of-Line and communicate with the other corporations, Yooch employed excellent multitasking skills and located the Chimera. He had moved to another sleeper compound and was tearing through it with the support of the two Tengus.
As the fleet moved in to position, the last drone structure disintegrated in to dust. Yooch called for the Phobos to enter the system as he warped close to the Chimera. Just then the Tengus warped off grid and the Chimera slowly swung around and began to accelerate. Afraid that it would enter warp before the Phobos could jam it, Yooch decloaked his Nemesis and immediately jammed the giant ship. He orbited as fast possible and held the point until the Phobos appeared. The carrier’s drones were ripping through the last of his shields as Yooch finally pulled the bomber into warp and left the scene.
Turning the fleet over to Gunner GzR, Yooch warped back to the entrance wormhole to direct the rest of the fleet’s entrance. Cara passed him there on her way to the battle in a neuting Legion.
As the last members of End-of-Line reached the system, the Chimera was taking heavy damage. The excellent guardian pilots from NOMEX had ensured that it’s fighter drones were not able to destroy any friendly ships. Yooch was able to warp back to the field in time to see the hull of the giant ship catch fire before it exploded, spraying debris tens of kilometers in every direction.
The fleets congratulated each other on punishing the breach of public policy and returned to high security space. Yooch docked up in the nearest station and took a much-needed shower while he though about where to head next. There was a bright future ahead of him in this corp – but for Spacemarine – this was the End-Of-The-Line.
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*Some artistic license employed
Ensign Yooch, Reporting For Duty 